


You Get Used To It

by twowritehands



Series: The Partnership of Ward and Jakoby [1]
Category: Bright (2017)
Genre: Brothers, Fairies, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Partnership
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 11:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13612875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twowritehands/pseuds/twowritehands
Summary: Jakoby has a weird way of showing affection...





	You Get Used To It

**Author's Note:**

> This is intended as part one of a series of one shots, quick glimpses into their day to day lives. I'm interested in exploring the magical world in Bright and the growing brotherhood between Nick and Daryl.

Ward grumbled when he looked out his living room window to see a gray kia optima hybrid pulling to the curb. Even from across the yard and through a wall, he could hear the pounding baseline of those orcish love songs. So he knew who it was before the muffled pulse of music cut with the engine and Jacoby, in worn jeans and flannel, jumped out.

 _He’s not in the squad car. He's not in uniform, and he didn't park on your lawn,_ Ward told himself as he stepped outside. Still, though, he was irritated. Jakoby could have sent a text or at the very least mentioned at the end of their shift yesterday that he planned to come by.

Ward stopped on the top porch step and frowned at his partner’s well kept personal car. He shook his head. Dude was single, good looking (for an orc), _and_ he was a nationally famous cop. But he chose to drive this environment-and-safety-first shit.

“Daryl!” Jakoby greeted with a smile and too much enthusiasm. That part made Ward almost feel like smiling, too, because he'd expected that greeting. It'd been the same ever since that crazy prophecy business, and Ward thought this must be what it felt like to have a little brother bugging you all the damn time.

Despite these somewhat fond thoughts, Ward only scowled. “Hey, Nick. Don't you gotta life?”

“What? Yeah, man, of course.” The orc waved a hand dismissively. Even absently. Yet again, a little ribbing humor missed on him completely. He hurried to the back hatch of his middle class suburban family man car.  “But look! I brought you a gift.”

“A gift?” Ward was interested. He left his porch. Exactly four strides carried him to the middle of his still-dead lawn, and then all his intrigue and budding excitement dropped dead. Nick had pulled two white buckets from his car. Each was filled to the brim with glittery black stuff.

“That looks like shit.”

“It's fairy shit!” Jakoby announced proudly. “For your grass!”

“ _What_?”

“This stuff is what your lawn needs, man. Trust me.”

Ward blinked, his face deadpan. “You _literally_ . Brought me buckets of _shit_ . As a _gift_?”

“This isn't regular fertilizer, Ward! Do you have any idea how nutrient rich and powerful fairy shit is?”

Waving a hand in front of his face, Ward coughed. “I can smell how powerful it is from here!”

“Look at this quality,” Jakoby plunged a gloved hand in one bucket and shook the beady little drops through his fingers like sand. Each little black pebble of feces glittered colorfully in the sunlight.

“Jesus, man!” Ward covered his nose and mouth, fighting a gag. Horrifying memories of cousin Dae-Dae’s eye had him taking a few steps back.

Jakoby continued, unfazed. Enthusiasm still at one hundred. “You _will not_ find fae fertilizer that's more pure than this!”

“Fairy shit!” Ward’s voice was nasally because he had his nose pinched shut. “You have buckets and buckets of fairy shit in your car right now.”

“Well, yeah. You want to get a good coat over the whole lawn. But you’ll only need to treat it once, I promise. Because this shit is pure.”

“Oh,” Ward huffed. “If it's _pure_ shit. That's so much better than a gift of, like _, contaminated_ shit.”

“Yep.” Jakoby agreed, again missing the joke. “Those fae fertilizer factories, you know, they mix in a bunch of filler stuff that nutrition-wise is worthless, just to increase poundage per bag. But what I brought you here, this is organic. I swear to God.”

“Organic,” Ward echoed with a mixed expression of disgust and doubt. “Who told you that?”

“No one. I collected this myself"

“The _fuck_ , Jakoby?”

“What?”

Ward chuckled and mimed grabbing things from the space above his head  “You just goin’ around snatchin’ fairies out the air and squeezin’ ‘em over your bucket or somethin’?”

“No,” Jakoby laughed. He began to unload the buckets. Lining four, then five, then six up on the curb. “That's ridiculous. I have seely courts in my garden. Just gotta scrap this stuff off the bottom of the cages the same time I extract the fairy dust from the frames. Smell that, Ward! I _guarantee_ your lawn will be the greenest on this side of town if you put this down. Look--”

“Nick, man. Hold up. You a _cop_ and you keeping fae hives? Within LA city limits?” To say Ward was stunned was an understatement. Here he thought his partner was Mr Goody Two Shoes. The city saw fairies as pests, and a swarm of the fuckers could be dangerous.

“Well,” The rookie looked sheepish, the nubs of his filed teeth peeking out of a boyish grin. “Pretend you didn't hear that.”

“I'm gonna,” Ward returned drily. He didn't even have time to get properly angry at Nick for _attributing_ to the fairy pest problem, because the wind had shifted and he couldn't breathe. He coughed and tried to step out of the down wind area. “But maybe don't go bragging about your illegal seely courts no more.”

“Look, it's the only law I break, because it's an atrocious one! Do you have any idea how _vital_ fairies are to the preternatural ecosystem? They are the honey bees of the magical domain. If not for fairies then an entire phylum of taxonomic hierarchy in our ecosystem disappears!”

“Yeah, okay, and gettin’ a jar of happy dust a week is just. What? A perk? You selling that stuff on the side?”

“Fairy dust is a popular herbal remedy.” Nick said somewhat breezily without making eye contact.

“Fuck, dude! I _definitely_ didn't hear that!”

“Dust is a natural mood adjuster, and it happens to be a good treatment for orc allergies.”

Ward laughed. “Sure.”

“It’s not an illegal substance! It's not even half as deadly as tobacco!” Nick was right. It wasn't illegal so much as regulated and taxed to kingdom come. Like alcohol and tobacco, fairy dust could not be distributed by just anyone to just anyone.

“Okay, duster. Go on, stick out your tongue. I bet my _pension_ it’ll be glittery. You dusting on your downtime ain't you? Go on. Stick it out.”

“Fuck you, Ward. It's herbal and harmless.”

“Of course it is, glitter gut.” Ward chuckled until he gagged on the smell again. “Damn! Seriously, though, how the hell did you drive across town with six buckets of this in your car?”

“You get used to it.”

“My neighbors gonna burn my house down for stinking up the place!”

“ _You get used to it_ , Ward. I'm telling ya! Your grass will be thick and emerald green within days. _Days_ , partner. I'm tellin’ ya. Sell the house in no time!”

“Okay. Well, now you're gonna tell me that the second half of my present is that _you're_ shoveling this shit for free.”

Nick’s shoulders and ears dropped simultaneously, but he didn't look surprised. He grunted a little. “Yeah, okay.”

Ward chuckled and thumped him on the shoulder before turning and practically running back into his house.

But three days later, Ward prepared for work and peeked out the window as he had his coffee. He nearly choked on his brew. Within moments, he dialed Nick and listened to the phone ring as he yelled for his wife and daughter to come and see.

“Hmm 'lo?” A groggy voice answered.

“You fairy keeping, mother fucking happy dusting, genius!”

“Ward?” Jakoby’s only slightly more awake voice asked as Sophia exclaimed and hurried outside to get a closer look.

“My lawn, man!” Ward cried as he joined his family. Kicking off his shoes, he stepped on lush green grass. He jumped, feeling the stuff was springy underfoot. “That shit you brought magicked it the fuck up! It's like a damn jungle out there!”

“Told you, man. It's 'cos its pure. How do you think I grow so many fruits and vegetables in such a small rooftop garden? It's the magical compounds in the--”

“Yo, man, we got to do the backyard next. When can I get more?”

“More? Oh, I don't know, Ward. First six buckets were a gift but any more will cost ya.”

Ward laughed. “Fuck you, man!”

“Let's say six more buckets in exchange for… one of your wife's bunt cakes every week for three months.”

For a fact, pure organic fairy shit cost up to a grand per five pound bag. Getting six buckets in exchange for some sugar and flour poured in a donut shaped pan once a month? It wasn't hard math.

It also wasn't hard to see that all of this was simply Nick being his usual generous self. Nick knew that Ward’s wife loved baking, but rarely had an excuse to carve out time for it. By requesting her bunt cake as payment, he was doing her a favor. She was particularly proud of a recipe she'd learned from her grandmother, and baking it always made her feel better.

The fact was, Nick and Daryl _were_ friends as well as partners. Ward needed to show that by not letting up on the teasing for even one second. But Nick needed to lavish the Ward family with gifts for little to nothing in return.

And Ward was totally fine with that.

**Author's Note:**

> FYI: when Nick sleepily answered his phone, he had a nekkid elf sleeping on top of him.
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Do with that what you will.


End file.
